ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,311,133, issued on May 27, was assigned to Boston Scientific Scimed Inc. (Maple Grove, Minn.).

"Anastomotic drainage stent" was invented by Jeff Gray (Sudbury, Mass.), Bryan Bannon (Duxbury, Mass.), Ryan R. Donovan (Santa Clara, Calif.) and Katharine Eckerline (Boston).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present disclosure relates to the field of body lumen drainage. Specifically, the present disclosure relates to implantable medical devices for facilitating the flow of fluids and materials between adjacent body lumens. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a drainage stent which maintains an open flow passage between fused tiss...